With Australia set for more bushfires, rising sea levels and extreme rainfall, experts are warning that politicians need to start planning for the future now. They say urban development and much major infrastructure are at great risk from climate change.

Transcript

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The IPCC's (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report predicts that Australia will experience more extreme temperatures, more droughts and more powerful cyclones.

Climate scientists say the expected sea level rises will be disastrous for coastal communities, as well as national infrastructure such as roads and airports.

They're calling for all levels of government to take the report seriously, and to consider reviewing planning regulations.

Lucy Carter reports.

LUCY CARTER: Australia is well known for its extreme climate, but according to the IPCC's latest report, it's going to get more extreme Down Under.

Kevin Hennessy is a principal research scientist for the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation).

KEVIN HENNESSY: Australia can expect to experience an increase in extremely high temperatures, more fire weather, more extreme rainfall events, and an increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones and more droughts in southern parts of Australia.

LUCY CARTER: Mr Hennessy says hotter temperatures and less rain are a recipe for extreme bushfire conditions in the nation's south.

KEVIN HENNESSY: Such as those that occurred on Black Saturday back in February 2009. So unfortunately, that means increased risk for not only rural areas, but also the peri-urban areas where there's a lot of property and of course a lot of people living there.

LUCY CARTER: The IPCC's report warns that sea levels could rise by up to a metre by the end of the century - a real problem for a country where most people live near the coast.

Professor Barbara Norman from the University of Canberra is a past national president of the Planning Institute of Australia

She says a review of the Australian planning system is needed.

BARBARA NORMAN: We need to be now taking this very, very seriously. Planning for climate change by all levels of government - federal, state and local governments now working with the private sector and with the communities, because we need to be identifying those areas that will be at higher risk in the future. And we need to be ensuring that we are not placing either future development or redevelopment in areas that could place our coastal communities, for example, at high risk.

LUCY CARTER: Professor Norman says it's not just urban development under threat.

BARBARA NORMAN: Clearly the airports in Brisbane and in Sydney have to now be thinking very carefully about the implications in terms of inundation of major national infrastructure. So this isn't just about housing on the edge - it's about ports, our airports, our telecommunications.

LUCY CARTER: Professor John Cole is the executive director of the Institute for Resilient Regions.

JOHN COLE: Our planning has to keep abreast of our scientific knowledge. Notwithstanding that a lot of people still talk about climate change as if it's a matter of religion and not science, the fact is our planners and our politicians should know better and they need to ensure that our urban development - particularly as I think about quarter of Australians live within about a kilometre of the sea - that needs to be factored into our planning.

LUCY CARTER: The director of the International Energy Policy Institute, Professor Stefaan Simons, says this latest IPCC report may force countries like Australia to take a look at their emissions targets.

STEFAAN SIMONS: This report could have the effect of galvanising nations into coming to much more stringent agreements, and those that are ready to take the opportunities that come with that will do well.

LUCY CARTER: He says he has questions about the effectiveness of the Abbott government's Direct Action Plan on climate change and carbon emissions.

STEFAAN SIMONS: Whether it will actually create new reductions in carbon emissions, or it's only really going to encourage those who were going to make changes anyway and now get paid to make those changes. So I think the impacts will probably be quite limited.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The director of the International Energy Policy Institute, Professor Stefaan Simons, ending that report by Lucy Carter.